


So, that’s what you do on Christmas?

by nagi_greenhouse_defect



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Anxious Anxiety | Virgil Sanders, Bad Puns, But not that much, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Established Relationship, Gen, M/M, Puns & Word Play, References to Home Alone Movies, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, a bit of angst, logicality just happened, one freudian slip, vague mention of the dark sides
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-12
Updated: 2019-12-12
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:35:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21772297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_greenhouse_defect/pseuds/nagi_greenhouse_defect
Summary: ‘Twas the season to be jolly!‘Twas also Virgil’s first Christmas with the Light Sides and, needless to say, he was quite nervous about it.
Relationships: Logic | Logan Sanders/Morality | Patton Sanders
Comments: 1
Kudos: 89





	So, that’s what you do on Christmas?

So, that’s what you do on Christmas?

Ah, the sweet taste of gingerbread and the cinnamon aroma in the kitchen; fairy lights covering every available surface and wall; the Christmas tree already decorated with ornate ornaments and gaudy garlands; the funky tunes of the Christmas carols… ‘Twas the season to be jolly!

‘Twas also Virgil’s first Christmas with the Light Sides and, needless to say, he was quite nervous about it. First of all, he wanted all of them to have a great time. Secondly, he desperately didn’t want to embarrass himself and look like a weirdo. After all, the impression that he made during the holidays could very well become the reason of either his permanent inclusion in the group, or his irreversible banishment from any future interaction with them. Like, no pressure or anything.

So, he decided to keep his mouth shut.

‘Logan, Christmas carols aren’t supposed to be rapped!’ Roman shrieked, exacerbated from his attempts to get Logic to sing. This was enough of a distraction for Anxiety to leave his troubling thoughts aside for a moment. ‘I think, at this point, you’re deliberately trying to get on my nerves!’

‘That is absolutely correct.’ Logan crossed his arms in front of his chest. ‘You know me too well, Princey, to understand that I dislike singing pointless, repetitive and mind-numbing songs.’

‘You take that back right now, Ebenezer Subterfuge! “Jingle Bells” is a classic that cannot be removed from the Christmas tradition!’

‘Yes, and precisely because we are singing it every year, every time I hear the song I want to figuratively throw myself off the nearest peer.’

‘Okay, that was it!’

Roman rolled up his sleeves as if about to settle this square off style.

‘Now, now – ‘Patton addressed both of them from the kitchen. ‘You got to play nice, kiddos. It’s Christmas Eve and on Christmas Eve we don’t argue with family!’

‘What about tomorrow?’ Creativity asked.

‘No, tomorrow is also a sacred family holiday!’

‘So, then 26. December is the official date of our throwdown, where I – ‘Logan began but was cut off abruptly from Patton’s now louder, clearer voice:

‘Do you want me to leave the food to help with solving your dispute?’ Even though it was phrased as a seemingly innocent and friendly question, Patton’s tone reeked of stern disapproval. The Sides silently agreed that it was in their best interest that Morality stayed in the kitchen to finish his cooking.

‘No, no need for you to come, dadd – I mean, Patts.’ Logan made an involuntary Freudian slip, causing both Roman and Virgil to lose it completely. ‘Very funny, very funny, guys.’ He tried his best not to appear flustered and began fiddling with his tie, which he wore over his Christmas jumper.

‘Someone has a worsening Oedipal complex.’ Roman’s smirk threatened to overtake his entire face.

‘Falsehood, technically it is an Electra complex and… oh, whatever.’ Logic gave up on explaining when the creative Side struggled to contain his laughter.

Absolutely defeated, Logan sat next to Virgil on the couch. The mindpalace commons were festively decorated with garlands and Christmas lights, as well as some drawings done by both Roman and Patton, and a stuffed reindeer and polar bear. Most of those were positioned on the couch since “Black isn’t a very festive colour!” It took the two of the Sides some adjustments and décor-shoving to sit comfortably.

Virgil wanted to say something to break the awkward silence that suddenly had overcome the room but his tongue was tied. He started to fidget with the sleeves of his sweater, which Logan had have definitely noticed, Vigil thought to himself. He glanced to the other Side as the feeling of being watched intensified. Logan appeared to have given his entire attention to a book about quantum physics from his personal collection.

_Still that doesn’t mean he wasn’t watching me before that!._ Another suspicion had formed in his mind and Anxiety retroactively self-confirmed his fear that the Light Sides still didn’t trust him completely, and that they would never trust him completely, and that this was all a set-up, and…

‘Virge, do hear me?’ Virgil almost jumped as he heard Patton’s voice close to his left. When did this guy get over here? ‘I know, kiddo, that you value your gloomy brooding time but don’t leaf your papa hanging!’ the moral Side shook the metal tray with pine-shaped biscuits towards Virgil’s face who took one. Logic groaned at Morality’s pun with his mouth fully stuffed with Patton’s cookies.

‘Padre, you are a cooking wizard!’ Creativity flattered Morality with mouthful of the sweets, spitting crumbs all over the carpet.

‘You know, Roman, the magic of Christmas can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the fairy lights on the Christmas tree.’ Patton stared into the distance, wanting to appear contemplative.

‘I was on the verge of complaining about it. However, it was the Harry Potter reference that ultimately saved you, Patts.’

‘Yeah, it was a nice one.’ The anxious Side agreed with Logic and chewed his thumb. Should have he added another joke?

The cookies were inevitably eaten. Everyone seemed in a much better mood.

‘What are we going to do now?’ Morality behaved just like an excitable child would during Christmas Eve.

‘Well, I suppose I could reconsider singing.’ Logan dragged out his sentence, looking like he was convincing himself in the process. Though that didn’t matter to neither Patton nor Roman: the latter puffed out his chest and grabbed his imaginary music sheets. Logan stood up and walked over to Patton, who was already next to the creative Side. The three of them blinked and stared at Virgil. Cold sweat ran down his back. Were they unsure of whether or not to include him?

‘C’mon, Virge, we’re waiting for you!’

‘Precisely, if I have to perform and strain my vocal chords, then so do you, too.’

‘It wouldn’t be the same without our Nightmare before Christmas!’ proclaimed Creativity.

‘Was… was that supposed to be a joke, or…’ Virgil began but Roman didn’t give him an answer. Instead Creativity came over to the couch, grabbed his hand and dragged him to the other two Sides.

‘The stage wouldn’t dim its lights for you, Virgil! Show it your beautiful, wonderful baritone!’ whimsy was now practically radiating from Roman, making Anxiety understand him even less. He was certainly sure that even Roman didn’t always have a full grasp of whatever came out of his mouth.

‘Whatever.’ Virgil mumbled, trying to hide his sly smirk.

He was positioned where Roman had stood previously. Creativity faced the other three:

‘Let’s start on three – one…’

‘I don’t think a song like “Jingle Bells” needs conducting.’

Logan’s statement went unacknowledged by the creative Side yet again.

After the song was ultimately over, Patton and Logan busied themselves with setting the table.

‘Before the Christmas meal begins, I insist we partake in my favourite tradition.’ Logic set down the Christmas turkey with a festive gleam in his eyes.

‘Sure, what is it?’ Virgil questioned as the only uninitiated one in the group.

‘Logan really likes his Christmas crackers, for some reason.’ Roman shrugged and sure, the logical Side conjured a whole basket full of them.

‘Great, loud noises.’ Anxiety opened and closed his hands. The unsettling feeling grew deeper. Something was not right and he knew it. ‘I love those.’

Apparently Logic had thought of that since he conjured a solution instantaneously – a pair of ear plugs.

‘Thanks.’ Virgil put them in his ears and made sure he couldn’t hear anything.

Everyone reached and pulled one from the basket – Virgil shared his first cracker with Patton, who beamed with enthusiasm and enjoyed every second of it. It exploded in a cloud of confetti and sparkles and revealed a thin shiny paper crown, a piece of paper and some candy. Morality grabbed the paper:

‘I'm reading a book about anti-gravity. It's impossible to put down!’ he busted into an adorkable fit of giggles and Virgil couldn’t help but smile. However, when Morality remembered the he couldn’t hear him, he passed the paper over. Glancing back and forth from Patton to Logan, who was trying to pry the paper crown out of Roman’s grasp, Virgil’s mind formed a suspicion why the logical Side enjoyed the crackers so much.

‘Aha!’ Whilst Roman sunk into his chair with a very pissed off expression, Logan stuck the stupid thing on his head with the most confidence he ever had and looked over to Patton, who couldn’t stop giggling. And Anxiety’s suspicion was confirmed when the two of them exchanged cheesy looks at one another, blushing like morons and then trying to hide how love-struck and awkward they had acted for the sake of the others. It wasn’t like it was hard to notice, especially with all the “accidental” bumping into each other in the kitchen or laying hands on one another when they thought no one was watching.

‘Ugh!’ It seemed Creativity had had the same thoughts prior since he and Anxiety spoke in unison. They immediately locked eyes and then pretended it didn’t happen.

Patton, oblivious to their troubles, slid half the bonbons plus the shiny crown over. Virgil took the sweet delights. The crown was slid back to the moral Side. Unfortunately, Patton disagreed:

‘Kiddo, I want you to wear it!’ he took the paper and gestured with it around. ‘Hereby I crown you the monarch of the Fun domain!’ Virgil attempted to dissuade him again. Nonetheless Morality had already made his mind. ‘You’re special and deserve it!’

The anxious Side couldn’t take more of his sappiness - the easier thing was to nod and wear the stupid crown. At least this one was purple. Shiny purple, definitely not Virgil’s purple, although still purple.

Roman, now eyeing Virgil’s crown with jealousy, proposed they shared a cracker. Anxiety rolled his eyes but conceded. Of course, the first thing Roman did was to take the new red glistening cardboard and offer the sweets as a compensation. Virgil read the terrible pun aloud:

‘Why did the invisible man turn down the job offer? He couldn't see himself doing it.’

Creativity rated the joke as a 9/10 and turned to get a second opinion, only to be greeted with the sight of Patton feeding Logan candy, because they had taken the last cracker. All matter of pretence was dropped when Logan swallowed the last confectionary, wrapped his arms around Patton (who put his around the other Side’s neck) and pulled him in for a kiss. Anxiety was glad he still had the earplugs in and couldn’t hear the make-out noises. Roman didn’t have this luxury:

‘All this PDA is making me want to P-D-go away!’ he let out an exaggerated welp. ‘Please, spare the feelings of your one and lonely!’

‘Sorry, sorry.’ The kiss was broken by Morality’s muttering, which was everything but apologetic in tone. The effect of his words was lessened further by his crown drooping on his forehead. ‘Let’s eat, everybody – the turkey won’t serve itself!’

Logan cut the turkey and served each Side an equal portion. The next five minutes were spent in furious, relatively silent chomping. The usual comments and praises about Patton’s finger-licking meal were exchanged once again. The turkey was completely gone only five minutes later.

‘I’m stuffed as a teddy bear!’ announced Patton.

‘Me, too, Padre, my tummy couldn’t resist the call of the turkey!’

‘Likewise.’

‘Do you want to go lie on the couch for a bit? Watch a movie or something?’ Virgil stifled a burp. The Sides trotted over to the couch. Most of the décor now ended up on the floor. Logan was on the far left side with one arm hugging Patton, who was more or less clinging to his chest. Virgil had sunk into the depths of his hoodie on his right and was used as a pseudo-resting devise by Roman, who had thrown his feet over the armrest on the far right.

‘Which Christmas flick would you prefer?’

‘How about Home Alone – ‘

‘Can we have another suggestion? Virgil? Patton?’

‘Shall it be Home Alone 2?’

‘I was thinking of doing a whole marathon of Home – ‘

‘Understood, I’m no longer taking suggestions. We’ll be watching Elf.’

Logan turned on the TV and the movie began. The words and images washed over Virgil, too absent-minded to really get invested. Trying to ignore his problem by consuming an ungodly amount of turkey had only left him bloated and feeling a lot worse than before.

_It is a simple thing, just ask them, you scaredy-cat!_ , Virgil berated himself. _They wouldn’t say no to such a simple thing? Right?_

_No, are you crazy, the moment they want you to explain where it came from, and you do, they’d be disgusted, and will make you leave, and you’d have to spent Christmas all alone, and…_

_You’re being ridiculous! The Light Sides have been accepting of your weirdness even before you were an official member of the gang…_

_You’re on a different terms here than they are! They never have had to prove anything to you, but you sure as hell have everything to prove to them… Do you want them to think you haven’t grown out of your old ways? That you’re still the same Dark Side you used to be?!_

‘Why do I have the feeling that we’re forgetting something?’ Patton broke the silence.

‘We accomplished absolutely everything which would constitute a successful Christmas holiday.’ Logan paused the film, pushed his glasses up his nose and conjured a “Perfect Christmas” to-do list and a pen to check if everything was in order.

‘Yeah, but I still have teensy-tiny feeling hitting my noggin as it does whenever I had failed to remember something.’

‘Well, I have no idea what that might be.’ Logan threw the list over his shoulder and it vanished in thin air.

Out of the blue all the Sides turned to Virgil.

‘Hey, kiddo, do you happen to know what we’re missing from the big picture?’

Anxiety shrunk. He didn’t want to lie to them.

‘Yeah, you almost never let anything go… I mean, you don’t forget important stuff.’ Roman elbowed him mischievously to suggest he should finally let the cat out of the bag.

‘No.’ The moment his voice came out of his mouth, a shiver went down his back. The sound was so distorted and wrong, it perfectly reflected the inner turmoil that had been plaguing his mind since the start of the evening. His hands immediately sprang to cover his mouth.

The others just blinked, dumbfounded and caught completely off-guard.

‘That… That sounded a little more like a “yes”, than it did a “no”.’ Roman noted.

‘Virgil, what’s wrong?’ Patton rested his arm on Anxiety’s shoulder.

Logan’s expression shifted from confusion to eureka:

‘Oh my god, we are so stupid!’ he sighed and covered his face. ‘We never asked _you_ about your favourite Christmas tradition!’

‘Oh my, you’re right!’ Morality’s fingers trailed down his cheeks.

‘Why didn’t you remind us?’ Roman gently tugged Virgil’s arm.

‘It’s really… not that important.’ He stared forwards at the TV screen, hoping to evade the others’ insistent staring.

‘Of course it is! That’s the point of Christmas – to gather with your family and do the things that make you happy together!’ Patton leaned forward to gauge a look at Virgil’s face.

‘You… you wouldn’t like it. It doesn’t matter, guys.’

‘That cannot be 100% determined as a truth, unless you tell us what it is.’ Logic corrected him.

‘Okay… I’ll tell you.’ Anxiety let go of the strings of his hoodie, which he had been intensely fiddling with. He took a deep breath, made sure his voice sounded normal again, and gathered his thoughts into a cohesive sentence. ‘On Christmas Eve… me and all the other Dark Sides used to celebrate together, just like you guys… And we’d… we’d spent the entirety of the holiday with no lights and only turn them on the morning of 25. December. We’d tell each other spooky Christmas stories or play cards, or…’

He trailed off, feeling like he had said enough, and waited for their response.

‘This is certainly a unique way to celebrate but I’m willing to give it a try.’ Declared Logan. Virgil, who had shut his eyes during his confession, snapped them open.

‘Yeah, me too! Knowing my brother, I was expecting something a lot weirder, so I’m pleasantly surprised!’

‘Well, we did burn dolls that looked like you on a bonfire for Halloween, so…’

‘You know…’ Patton began and Virgil braced himself for the inevitably rejection. ‘I might be very afraid of the dark but I’ll do anything to make you feel at home with your family, Virge.’

Morality snapped his fingers and the darkness surrounded the Sides. Whilst he was visibly uncomfortable because of the darkness, he gave Virgil a reassuring smile. To ease Patton’s discomfort, the anxious Side conjured a nice candle, smelling of apple and cinnamon. Morality was in awe.

The Sides’ full attention was now given to the dancing light of the fairy lights and the glistening garlands, reflecting it. Everyone was happy.

‘So, does anybody want to tell a story?’

**Author's Note:**

> Who is feeling festive? I sure am!
> 
> This took a lot longer than I expected. Hope you like it! 
> 
> I hope I could get at least one more holiday-themed one before Christmas is over!


End file.
